“Lady Erina, look over there. It’s Yukihira Soma’s roommate from Polaris Dormitory.”
Hearing Hisako Arato’s reminder, Erina also turned her gaze towards where the Polaris Dormitory residents were seated.
Whether it was Sakaki Ryoko or Yuki Yoshino, they were all students from Totsuki Culinary Academy’s 92nd generation, and had also advanced from Totsuki’s middle school division to the high school division, so Erina naturally recognized them.
And as her gaze swept over the Polaris Dormitory group, finally settling on one black-haired boy among them, Erina frowned directly and said, “So that’s it, that guy is behind this!
He must have helped Yukihira Soma get the dream ingredients, after all, they were friends before. Damn it! What a busybody.”
Both Erina and Hisako were clearly deeply impressed by Wenren Seiya, who appeared among the Polaris Dormitory group.
In fact, that day was the first time Erina had ever felt such power and pressure from someone her own age.
After returning from Wenren Restaurant that day, Erina had continuously tried to treat Seiya as an imaginary enemy, constantly making egg dishes and sashimi dishes, comparing them to Seiya's previous Three No Adheres and Fierce Ice Sea Bream Mountain.
But to her extreme frustration, no matter how many times she tried, under the discernment of her God Tongue, the dishes she made were far inferior to the level Seiya had displayed at that time.
It was for this reason that, even though Seiya wasn’t at Totsuki, Erina had always had people secretly watching Seiya and collecting information about him, which Hisako would then organize and give to her.
Was Erina interested in Seiya? No, no, no. The reason Erina did this was merely to know Seiya’s every move and to observe how Seiya honed such skills in a popular restaurant.
Not only was Erina exceptionally talented, possessing the God Tongue from birth—a unique gift—but having grown up in the Nakiri family, she had received various training and instruction since childhood; even at a very young age, she could distinguish salt from different regions.
As the saying goes, ‘know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated.’ The reason Erina paid attention to Seiya was precisely because she regarded Seiya as a formidable rival, and thus wanted to observe how he usually trained himself.
However, what Erina hadn’t expected was that one day, when she and Hisako were invited to a restaurant to sample dishes and then deliberately took a detour to see if Seiya’s cooking skills had improved in the past few days, they discovered that Wenren Restaurant, which had long queues just a few days ago, was actually closed!
And after some inquiries, Erina learned that Seiya had gone out to procure ingredients with that busty female employee.
As for what ingredients they were procuring, Erina could guess with her chest.
After all, her grandfather had just told the other party about the dream ingredients a few days ago, and as a result, Seiya's restaurant was closed these past few days.
Erina had never been to the Camp or merchant association for procuring dream ingredients, but she had heard from her grandfather how dangerous it was there.
Upon learning that Seiya had only taken Minezaki to the Camp, Erina had specifically reported this matter to her grandfather.
Of course, Erina certainly wasn’t worried about Seiya’s safety, which is why she asked her grandfather to use Totsuki’s influence to have the merchant association at the Camp take good care of Seiya.
Mainly, Erina felt that it would be too much of a pity if a guy who could be called a “rival” among her peers, who was hard to come by, were to die in the mountains just like that.
In the following days, Erina continued to pay attention to Seiya’s situation, but unfortunately, Seiya, who had been at the Camp for over a week, still hadn’t returned to Tokyo.
Not only had he not returned, but Erina even found out that Seiya had actually taken that busty female employee into the perilous Gourmet World.
What kind of place is the Gourmet World? It’s a mysterious world even more dangerous than the Camp!
You, a chef, aren’t cooking properly, and you’ve gone off to be a Gourmet Hunter!
Exploring the Gourmet World is one thing, at least hire a few experienced Gourmet Hunters to guide you, but you just brought one big sister!
Erina, who had heard about Seiya’s death-defying actions, was speechless at the time.
She could understand a chef pursuing ultimate ingredients, but she truly couldn't comprehend such self-destructive behavior.
After Seiya entered the Gourmet World and completely lost contact, Erina had regretted for a while that a culinary genius she could somewhat look up to had been a flash in the pan.
Due to information lag, Erina was currently unaware of the commotion Seiya had caused at the Camp afterwards.
Therefore, not knowing that Seiya had already returned to Tokyo, and had even come to Totsuki, she was so surprised when she saw Seiya sitting among the Polaris Dormitory members.
Yukihira Soma couldn't possibly have obtained dream ingredients, and since Seiya appeared at Totsuki, it could only mean that the “Frozen Wild Bull” was brought back from the Camp by that guy Seiya.
Under Erina’s constant gnashing of teeth, Nikumi and Yukihira Soma on stage also completed their Shalyapin Steak Bowl dishes, and the entire Food War moved to the most exciting judging segment.
Although Tetsuma Buffalo, as a dream ingredient, was slightly inferior to Frozen Wild Bull in terms of meat quality and rarity, Erina believed that Nikumi still had a chance to win.
After all, for an expert in cooking meat ingredients, the gap in ingredients could be completely compensated for by skill.
However, very quickly, after the three judges tasted Nikumi’s and Yukihira Soma’s Shalyapin Steak Bowl dishes respectively, and after some discussion, they ultimately announced Yukihira Soma’s victory.
Nikumi, unable to accept this result, quickly raised an objection, and Yukihira Soma, who had long been prepared, served a spare Shalyapin Steak Bowl for Nikumi to taste.
“Onions, red wine… and the unique, impeccable texture of the Frozen Wild Bull as a dream ingredient itself. As far as meat dishes go, this is indeed quite delicious.
But even so, I don't think the meat I prepared tastes worse than yours!”
After tasting the meat on Yukihira Soma's Shalyapin Steak Bowl, Nikumi admitted Yukihira Soma's skill, but she felt that the meat she cooked should not taste worse than his.
Theoretically, their dishes were on par, and she, who used lower-grade ingredients, should have been the winner, so why did the judges keep voting for Yukihira Soma?
Hearing Nikumi’s words, Erina also came to the stage with Hisako, picked up the steak from Yukihira Soma’s bowl with chopsticks, and then tasted the meat on Nikumi’s Shalyapin Steak Bowl, finding that the situation was indeed as Nikumi said.
However, when Erina saw the grains of rice sticking to the chopsticks, she quickly realized why Nikumi had lost.
“It’s because of the rice…”
“Because of the rice?”
Seeing Nikumi’s puzzled expression, Yukihira Soma, standing nearby, looked at Erina with a hint of admiration and said, “That’s right, the reason you lost this time is because you made the same mistake I made before.”
